
THE FUKUSHIMA FAMILY
Kigukawa, Shizuoka
Based in Kikugawa City (the Westernmost district of the Makinohara Plateau), the Fukushima family is an official practitioner of traditional Japanese tea-grass agriculture system (Chagusaba Agriculture). The main farmer in the family is currently Yuhei Fukushima, and we are partnered with his nephew, Hirotaka Fukushima (CEO of Fujinokuni Tea), who is in charge of expanding the family's customer base overseas.
From the Fukushima Family:We return the soil to its original, natural state in order to achieve the aroma and flavor of ages past. With this philosophy in mind, we undertake soil development to achieve maximum safety and deliciousness in our tea cultivation.
15-year long soil development: We regularly use new soil and stable field conditions in the cultivation of our tea leaves, contributing to the reduction of pesticide residue and nitrate nitrogen. This allows us to cultivate tea leaves with the soil’s inherent nutritional function.
In addition to this soil development, we us fish-based and organic fertilizers in order to avoid the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers. While we do use pesticides in our tea cultivation, we keep use to an absolute minimum (no pesticides are used 6 months before harvest). The result is tea that is very safe (meeting EU’s strict pesticide residue requirements) and high in vitamins and minerals.
Using only delicious tea leaves (based on near-infrared spectroscopy analysis conducted by the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization), we process our tea leaves to bring out the natural sweetness of the leaf.
We control the process of production from tea cultivation to processing at our own tea factory.